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Since the release of the Hawaii 5-0 first season on DVD, there has been a lot of renewed 5-0 hype. I've been contacted to have the 5-0 Pantera in a television segment and also in an online sports car magazine.

The photographer and I headed out to Tantalus Mountain to do a photo shoot (although the episode wasn't actually shot there). About half way through the mountain, the engine instantly cuts out. Next smoke starts to fill the cockpit. Murphy's Law, the car has been a totally reliable ride until now that she's on a photo shoot. The photographers wife comments "Hey, Death Wish on Tantalus Mountain part 2" Ha Ha very funny. Crawl under the dash and find the pink ignition wire fried, luckily its the only one. Called a friend who brings out a roll of wire and I by pass the ignition switch and get the car running again. We finish the shoot and the car makes it home without any more problems. I haven't had time to take things apart yet but I suspect the ignition switch has burned out from being overloaded through the stock wiring (We were running the car's lighting for the shoot as well as the fans being on). I hadn't made time to do the relay conversion on this car yet which could have cost me a major fire. I lucked out! If you haven't done a relay conversion yet, don't procrastinate, get it done!
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Dennis,

I had the same problem. You need a relay kit, but you also need to rebuild or replace your ignition switch. Follow the instructions here:
http://www.panteraplace.com/page125.htm

Here's a pic of my switch and why your wires got so hot and began to melt the insulation. None of these contacts should be black. They should all be bright copper. It's not necessary to have the contacts re-plated as Mike states in the link above. They can be polished back to like-new condition.

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Thanks Garth. I lucked out. I took it all apart today and the burn stopped at the junction before the ignition switch. The short in the wire must be in the body or the frame, I haven't finished tracing it yet. I did run a jump wire from the ignition switch to the coil and all runs well and doesn't heat up. I'm in the process of ordering the relay kit that you have (BTW, thanks for the info on that) I have the relays installed in my '73 but just hadn't had the time to install them in the 5-0 car. Well, this was a good lesson on putting things off!
quote:
I lucked out. I took it all apart today and the burn stopped at the junction before the ignition switch. The short in the wire must be in the body or the frame, I haven't finished tracing it yet.

Dennis,

Just following up. Did you ever trace down the location of the short? And what "junction before the ignition switch" are you referring to? The terminal block that the switch wires connect to (see pic below)?

If the burn was between the terminal block and the ignition switch, it might have been caused by resistance inside the switch (see pic of blackened contacts in my post above). Just want to make sure you still don't have a problem.

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